Tuesday, June 30, 2015

You know when you open a bag of chips and you start eating and then there are no chips left because you inhaled them like a starving beast? Ya? Me too. Cuz thats what I did to this bag.
This is Lay's Canada's Salt & Vinegar... a tangy, salty, burn your lips kinda bag, that is ever so hard to get just right.
The bag smells so Vinegar-y when you pop it open, a good sign. Then you bust out the first chip, and you think to yourself, "ow, do I have water nearby?", but the feeling goes away quickly and you are left with a bag of chips that are just delicious. Ok, so the potato was just basic, and the salt was relatively mild, but that Vinegar was so perfect it makes up for the rest of the bag just being standard. The vinegar is bright and acidic, with a hint of sweetness at the end. It makes this bag really forgiving and easy to demolish.
Compared to the US version of this flavor, it is a lot easier to eat, the US equivalent burns and the Vinegar is so strong you have to put the bag down often.
All in all, I consider this bag a great bag, easy to eat, good flavor, satisfying. A+

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Wow yall, wow! Lay's Dominican Republic ACTUALLY released the details of a contest ending! Amazing!! (sarcasm sarcasm sarcasm) Good for the marketing team! They finally finished a job that they were hired to do. Aww!

Ok, everyone calm down!

The mystery bag flavor for the "Cual Es El Sabor?" (What is the flavor?) contest was released and the flavor is "Tomate y Herbas" (Tomato and Herb). The picture is a pic of a bowl of tomato soup or puree with basil on top. It's a flavor we see every once and a while, I know the US had a gross version of it called "Garden Tomato and Basil" and I just talked about Romania's "Tomato and Green Herbs" the other day. I could really care less about this flavor, I think the real victory here is that DR finally showed us the winner of a contest that they've promoted online. Because now if you want to buy it, you actually know it exists.

So, do you want to try it? Did you try the mystery bag? Did you guess right?
Let us know in the comments below!

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Yo. I should not have done this. Ok. I just, I shouldn't have.
This, my friends, is Lay's Thailand's version of "Chinese Fried Lobster in XO Sauce". And you know what? It tastes like "Chinese Fried Lobster in XO Sauce".
Let's start with the smell, the bag smells like Hot Asian Seafood. Like, when you put your face right down into the plate at a Chinese restaurant and your plate is still hot, and you breathe in deep and you smell that plate. Surprisingly though, very authentic.
The chips were fine, I'm not gonna lie and tell you I was focused on the chips, cuz I wasn't. I was paying attention to the seasoning. Thailand's got a good chip though, much better than most other Countries. They looked exactly like the one on the picture of the bag, but with a brown-orange seasoning on it.
Now, the seasoning is SPOT ON. Like no joke, I tasted Lobster, and a myriad of hearty Chinese spices.You get the bold Lobster flavor, definitely shellfish, and it is hugged by a complicated mix of garlic and onion and chili and so many things.

I grew up in a largely Chinese community, went to Chinese school when I was little, and have even toured the Country... so I feel very confident saying that this bag was seasoned very authentically. If I closed my eyes, I would say these were Chinese chips before predicting Thai.

So, was this bag a success or a failure? Well, while I completely regret trying these (the things I do for this blog), I think the bag is a total success! This bag isn't made for a person like me who would sit at home and munch on Cheetos if given a choice; it's made for the Thai consumer, who have MANY more fish flavored snacks than we do in the US. And this bag was really a killer seafood flavor. It was complex with Lobster flavor finished by the variety of aromatic spices. To nail the flavor so perfectly, and to make the potato chip suit that seasoning so well, is a very hard task to achieve.

I think this bag is probably like Chip Report Level: Expert, but if you are a daring soul, you might as well just try it. Or if you are in Thailand and want to have an experience, just do it. But I don't think you need to chase these down, unless you really love your fishy flavored snacks, then by all means this is a great one! I picked these up rather easily on Amazon and just had them delivered to my door. Easy Peezy.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

MMMM. Walkers. How I missed you.
This is an exquisite bag of Walkers Extra Crunchy in "Sticky BBQ Rib" flavor. The chip comes in the Extra Crunchy cut which is a thicker cut chip... not exactly a Kettle Cook, but somewhere between that and a regular cut. It's a great texture, really, and allows the taster to get more of that lush potato flavor from the chip. And as I've mentioned before, Walkers use some of the most flavorful potatoes around. They always use British potatoes, and it makes a huge difference.
Opening the bag, it smells fantastic, it has a sweet hearty almost meaty smell. The seasoning is typical Walkers, it's a bit similar to prawn cocktail, or ketchup, in that this BBQ flavor has a sweet and tangy brightness to it. But it is still very much a BBQ flavor. I think after trying this, they made the right choice not to just label it BBQ like the millions of other BBQ bags out there, because this isn't that flavor. It is definitely the kind of sweet, sticky BBQ you could imagine yourself licking off of your fingers after eating ribs.
This bag is a complete home run to me, and I'm highly recommending you hunt this baby down. The bag was pretty big, and I practically inhaled it in a day. Good job yet again Walkers!

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Lay's Belgium is launching limited edition Summer flavors!
"Sweet Reggae Salsa" and "Sizzling Fajita" will be around for a limited time only to celebrate the Summer Sun.
The bags are the first I've seen outside of the US to use these cartoon images that Lay's USA has been using for their Summer promotions. It suits these well though, considering these are seasonal.
The flavors sound kind of wack though. "Sizzling Fajita" could literally be any meat or BBQ flavor, and I don't think "Sweet Reggae Salsa" is a real thing. What does that flavor entail? They just sound like flavors made up to sound fun and Summery.
But I could be wrong, and they could be totally new and unique flavors.
If you are visiting Belgium this month, you'll have a TON of flavors to try. But, maybe this will be on your list. I'm not tripping over them, but at least they are trying to have fun with their chips.

Will you be trying these? We'd love to hear what they taste like. Let us know in the comments section below!

Monday, June 15, 2015

This Summer Smith's in Australia has launched two limited edition flavors "Meat Pie & Sauce" and "Tomato Sauce" aka Ketchup. The 2 flavors are launched in support of the AFL, the Australian Football League. I don't know what that is, but by all accounts it's not American Football, it's not Rugby, and it's not Soccer. Sooo, it's it's own thing. The bags are cute cuz they look like Jerseys. The flavors sound great, "Meat Pie & Sauce" isn't hard to get right, and who doesn't love Ketchup? Both come on Crinkle Cut chips.
They both look yummy.
So, are you gonna be in Australia this Summer? Sounds like the Aussie hunt is on!

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Here are some more newly launched Deep Ridged Lay's from around the world.
Romania recently launched the MAXX line including flavors "Paprika", "Salt", and "Cheddar & Onion". Hungary launched the MAXX line this past February with the flavors "Salsa", "Cheese & Onion", "Kebab", "Bacon", and "Ketchup". And lastly, Denmark has expanded their Deep Ridged collection that began last year with "American BBQ" and "Naturel" to include "Sour Cream & Onion".
I'm not gonna lie, Hungary's collection looks DELICIOUS! Kebab, Salsa, Bacon, and Ketchup.... YUMMM to all of those x1000000. I believe the "Bacon" and "Ketchup" flavors are marked as Limited Edition, so if those sound like must haves to you, I'd suggest you hunt them down quickly.
Have any of you guys tried the Deep Ridged chips in these Countries? How do they stack up to the originals? Tell us in the comments section below.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Lay's Hungary just debuted 3 new seasonal flavors to seek out this Summer.
The first new flavor is "Summer Barbeque". The bag shows off a gorgeous looking steak, so I assume this is a meaty BBQ flavor. It's hard to go wrong with BBQ. So, this is one I'd love to try.

Next up, "Summer
Salad" is described as a refreshing and light mix of Cucumber and Sour
Cream. I have no idea what this could taste like, I know a lot of
Countries use Cucumber, but the US doesn't, so IDK how that works on a
chip.
I feel like it could be similar to Canada's "Tzatziki" flavor, but hopefully not as salty.

Lastly, "Summer Cheese in Herbs" is described a soft creamy cheesy with herbs.
This comes on a Ruffled Chip, so I assume it is probably a bolder
seasoning. Something similar to "Sour Cream and Onion". Sounds
delicious!

So, are you gonna be in Hungary any time soon? Get these quick cuz they are Seasonal flavors here just for the Summer!!

Monday, June 1, 2015

Here's another new Guess the Flavor contest, this time happening in the Dominican Republic. Normally, I would be stoked to tell you guys about this, but I'm pretty certain that we will never actually find out what this mystery flavor is.
SEEE... I've actually ranted about the team behind Lay's in the Dominican Republic before... and while I've never tried their chips before, I can tell you their marketing is the worst. Just the worst.
In 2012 they ran a campaign similar to "Do Us A Flavor" where customers pick a winning fan flavor. But then they just stopped running the campaign online and up until this month their Facebook was just sitting there asking fans still to vote (just go on their FB and scroll down the last few photos to see the evidence). Then last year, they participated in the South American "Copa De Sabores" World Cup Flavor competition. The Dominican Republic page is STILL sitting there asking fans to vote and waiting for a Champion to be chosen, check that out here.
Now, out of the blue, after their FB has been idle for 3 years, Lay's Dominicana is finally announcing another new campaign.
Fans just need to buy the bag, taste it, and go to www.cualeselsabor.com to submit their flavor guesses. Guess right and win some $$$.
I love these contests, but I am not holding my breath that I'll ever find out what the flavor is.
So, why am I talking about it? Well, I still think it's something worth hunting down if you are passing through the Dominican Republic. Just because the marketing department needs help doesn't mean that the chips aren't fun or delicious.
So enjoy the hunt chip fans! and let us know in the comments what you think these taste like! I wanna know!!

UPDATE: as with many other contests DR has held, they have now added Guatemala to this contest. The 2 Countries now share a contest website which now blocks you out from the US and says "this site is inaccessible from your Country". Whether the flavors are the same in both regions, I'm not sure.

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Welcome

The Chip Report is an attempt to taste every Frito-Lay chip around the world. We're here to talk about international flavors and marketing, compare them to the status-quo here at home, and track down hard to find bags like a scavenger hunt. You can join in too, let us know about bags of chips you've come across in your travels!

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Looking for info about a particular flavor? Use the search bar to find what you seek. Want to browse similar flavors? Each entry is tagged by Style of Chip, Country of Origin, Flavors/Ingredients, and Type of Entry (i.e. Review or News etc.)... if you want to see more, just click on the tag that peaks your curiosity. Stories about new flavors being released are usually labeled "Gotta Get At This". Stories about new contests being held around the world are labeled "Contest". Reviews are labeled simply by bag name.Enjoy!